by Joe Sirico
Since we knew we would be coming to Italy as missionaries we’ve been praying for hearts here to be softened to hear the gospel. One of our college students in our Bible study asked about riding horses as a group, so I went to check it out. I found an equestrian center very close to our house. I went to check it out and met the owner, Mario (so we’ll call him) who gave me a run down on how things worked. I mentioned that I had played polo and trained horses for years and worked with a particular type of training method called Parelli. To my surprise he knew of the method and when I asked if I could have an opportunity to train one of his horses he jumped at the chance.
I began working with one of his young horses and Mario asked if he could watch and learn as I trained. I happily agreed. So, for the past three weeks Mario and I have spent a fair bit of time together. He has been a good student and besides asking me questions about my horse training techniques he has shown a definite interest in what I do for a “living. Through several good conversations Mario now understands my point of view of salvation through Jesus Christ and he gave me his full endorsement today. One day he began asking me more about what I believe while we were standing at the barn with one of his clients and his daughter. The group discussion allowed me to share the four spiritual laws with them. Amazingly, all three of them seemed delighted to hear all of this and they had no problem believing it to be truth. We agreed that the truth was found in the Bible and that the Bible is all about Jesus Christ and therefore the truth (la verita’) is Jesus. We also agreed that whether it be a Catholic Church or a protestant church, we all have the same Bible and that if we rely on God’s Word we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
They were encouraged to know that there are believers in the U.S. who give their hard earned money to support missionaries who share the gospel to reach people they don’t even know. I’m telling you, all those believers who give to missionaries are a witness across the many miles. God can use it all to change hearts in ways we can’t even fathom.
Through the course of this horse training scenario Mary and I have had the opportunity to meet Mario’s wife, daughter, daughter’s boyfriend, sister, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew. And we have been to Mario’s house for lunch last Sunday. It’s only the beginning of the amazing answers to prayers. These people truly hunger for the truth and we are feeling blessed to be able to offer the wonderful gift of the gospel to them.

by Mary Sirico
To say the least Easter was a different experience here!!!! On Palm Sunday, we found out that there would be not service at our church. There is usually about 20 and more than 1/2 were leaving Rome to go to their family home so a dinner together was planned for Wednesday evening before everyone left. I have to say my heart sank when I realized I wouldn’t be with my church family for Easter, but made the decision to go to dinner, embrace that activity and move on to take the opportunity to be with an Italian family in Tuscany for Easter.
Nearly everyone from church came to dinner. The meal was lamb and bitter greens, bread and wine; all with beautiful spiritual significance. Corrado (our pastor) did a beautiful service sharing the significance of each item. Members then read psalms throughout the meal. And we conclude with a special cake “colombo” which is in the shape of a dove in remembrance of the Holy Spirit and the gift of peace. During one of the psalms, I realized that at our table there were believers from Iran, New Zealand, China, Albania, Italy, France, and oh yes, us from America. Tears started to well up with joy as I sensed the strong presence of God among his united believers and I was so thankful to see his hand reaching far and wide. The slightly crowded, slightly old, slightly dirty room just didn’t seem so important as the beauty of the body of Christ shined brightly. As I dried my eyes, I saw the same thing happening in the eyes of the Iranian woman, and the woman from New Zealand.
So filled with God’s presence we went off to Garfagnana, Tuscany with a family of non believers knowing that it would be a different time. We arrived on Friday and had a beautiful time admiring the beauty and presence of God’s handy work in snow covered peaks. The new green of spring in the fields was magnificent. The natural beauty of this area testifies to a God who surely loves beauty. This back drop and the family dinner table became our place of worship as all of the churches in this town of 6600 people were closed with no type of Christian worship on Easter. Sadly no one but Joe and I and this family seemed to notice that worship of Jesus was missing on Easter Sunday; a holiday meant to remember his death and resurrection. I can’t put into words how much this grieved my heart. I was, however, very glad that we were there to share Jesus in some small way as we “broke bread” and had discussions about Jesus, God and religion with a beautiful Italian family around their table this Easter.
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What’s so complicated?
Here’s a wonderful email that I received from one of the young gals in our Friday night Bible study. It brought tears to my eyes to think how the Holy Spirit can speak even through me who still only speaks this language like a 10 year old. Shelley is a charming young woman from New Zeland, so try to hear her precious accent in her words:

“i have been meaning to tell you, that the last time we came, and your message was on how incredibly simple grace is, touched my heart…for the first time in 28 years, i…who has been a christian all my life type christian…is beginning to understand that i cant keep focusing on my sin and feeling guilty about it (thereby stopping me from moving forward with God), but focus on what HE has done for me….NOT what i can do for HIM, what HE has done for me. go figure!! takes a message in another language for me to think about it in another way…perhaps when we hear it in our own language all our lives…we just take it for granted how amazing that message is. anyway, thanks guys!! i am still learning, and trying to understand this grace however, its a hard thing to grasp that i need to stop the guilt and receive the grace.
i was just listening to a radio broadcast this morning of chuck swindoll of getting through the tough stuff ‘shame’ ….. one of his verses was romans 8.1…”Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

its amazing how many times i have read that, but its not until you accept the gift…like that €10 note you gave to me type example…..that you understand what it means

cool aye….if God sent us to italy just for me to learn that…how cool!

Shelley’s words touched me so much that I felt I should share what I believe about the simple truth.
Jesus came to us to do two things, 1) die as a sacrifice to wash away our sin so we could stand in the presence of God, and 2) to explain to us how we could accept that gift.
He made a point of telling us He was relieving us of all of the many laws that had been written for us to live within. Laws that were so complicated the Israelites had to have lawyers, called priests, who had to interpret these laws for them.
Jesus took all of this away and replaced it with something very simple. He said,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28-30

What did He mean, “….my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”? When tested by one of the Pharisee, a group of the lawyers who interpreted the law, Jesus was asked,

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What was Jesus saying here? Didn’t he make it clear that “all the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments?” Wasn’t Jesus saying that living by the rules themselves isn’t what’s important to God, what’s important to Him is where your heart is? If God has a heart for someone or something, then He wants us to have the same heart. So, as Jesus was being reproved by the Pharisees for not washing hands before eating, which is a certain violation of the laws, Jesus reproved them in return by saying,
“And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother; and Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father with. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” Mt 15:3-9
In this case Jesus was pointing out that the Pharisees would knowingly gave what they owed to their parents as their gifts (financial and otherwise) to “God” by giving it to the temple instead. Jesus saw this as a heart issue, they used the part of the law for their own benefit caring nothing about the “heart” of the law.
So, what has man done to the Church over the years? We have returned to the same place the Israelites were 2000 years ago and before. We now have priests, pastors, elders who all interpret and add to the word of God more than what God had intended. As a result, many have reached a point where it has become more important how the Bible is interpreted than how much we love our brothers and sisters. We have created walls separating believers in Jesus Christ, one from another on the premise that what one believes is blasphemy to the other and as a result we can’t be united together as one Church of Jesus Christ. If you think God’s heart was broken by the Jews who would rather give to the temple than to their parents, how do you think He feels about us not associating with each other because of differences in interpretation of things that aren’t even important compared to the simple truth:

“….for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” Rom 3:23
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 6:23
“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rom 10:9
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom 10:13, Joel 2:32

That’s it, end of story! Why must we always make it so complicated? Yes, there is much more written in the Bible, but it’s really for teaching us how to live according to God’s will. It’s not all there so we can argue over the interpretation of it. Why can’t we just agree to disagree and then focus on the heart of the issue, and I mean heart in two ways: 1) Jesus is Lord and 2) God wants our hearts to love Him and others as He loves us, without reservation or pretense and unconditionally. Only then will we be living according to the will of God.

Friday Night Bible Study at Our House

We’ve been blessed with Italians and young people of several other nationalities who are seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ. Just last night we had our regular Friday night group over for dinner and bible study and they are now calling it Church. In all rights it is Church. It’s great to see them grow and have them ask great questions about faith.
Language has been a challenge like we haven’t had in a long time. Although we are progressing nicely it is like climbing Mount Everest. It seems like the more you learn the more you realize you don’t know. But God is faithful, he can even use us to lead Bible study in Italian to Italian speakers and they keep coming back for more. That’s proof that it’s not about us, but it’s the Holy Spirit that is making it all happen.

Language: A Great Undertaking.

There is an expression in Italian, “piano, piano” which has become part of our everyday life. “Piano, piano” means “slowly, one step at a time”. There’s another word in Italian “impresa”, it means “undertaking”, something significant that you have committed to accomplish. Well we have a huge undertaking that we didn’t realize how big it was until we set out on it. I’m talking about becoming fluent in Italian. Think about, how many adults set out on that course? It’s a huge and arduous undertaking. We’re learning nicely, but the more we learn the more we realize we don’t know. Italians have years of training in the traditions and the techniques of their language and much of it is the same as English but much of it is different. It is the differences that present the problem.
Please, every time you hear someone speak in a foreign language, say a little prayer for us.

We’ve Been Celebrating!

On February 23 Mary and I had been married for 25 years. To celebrate we invited over our Italian friends and had a party with food and music and good company. But the celebrating isn’t over yet. I mentioned in the article about language study that we are a couple of “old folks”, well Mary reaches a milestone in her life, on the 23rd of this month (March) she will be 50 years old, that’s right a half century. Happy Birthday Mary!

Prayer for Mary’s Documents

Remember the expression “piano, piano”, well the Italians take that very seriously, even when it comes to the regular bureaucracy. When we first got here in Italy we had to apply for our permission to remain in the country, “Permesso di Soggiorno”. We got right to it, submitted the paperwork, waited patiently for 3 months to be called in to give our finger prints and then wait some more for the “Permesso” to arrive. Mine (Joe’s) took 7 months to come. What a relief! Mary is still waiting for her’s and it’s been over 10 months which creates a big problem for her, because her Visa expires on March 30th. That means she’ll be here in Italy without proper papers, which means she can’t travel out of the country or back into the country and possibly she’s here in the country illegally. We can really use your prayers to encourage divine intervention with the Italian bureaucracy. Please every time you handle a form of some sort, please offer up a little prayer for Mary’s paperwork.

Finances are Becoming an Issue

God is doing amazing things here in Rome to share the gospel and we feel called to continue our work as it is bearing great fruit. However, the economic crisis has had it’s impact and it has hit us here in Italy too, in an indirect way. Many of our supporters have not been able to maintain their level of support. This has left us short the last several months by about 20%. Fortunately, we can weather that for a short while because there is a balance in our missionary account, but that won’t last forever. So, we are asking for all of our friends to consider joining in our financial support. Those who haven’t been part of the team can begin giving monthly at any level you can afford. Those who are already part of the team may consider increasing your gift by possibly 20%. Those who can’t help financially can certainly join us in prayer for God’s continued provision. We’re confident God will provide. Thanks for your consideration. Below you’ll find the several ways you can give to our ministry through our mission organization.
Greater Europe Mission (GEM) has a website www.gemission.org where you can set up on-line giving. Or you can phone GEM at 800-436-4488 and ask for Sharon Streid. Our account number with GEM is 41175. You can set up a regular Electronic Fund Transfer or gift monthly via credit card or mail in a check monthly to:

Greater Europe Mission
For: Joe and Mary Sirico #41175
18950 Basecamp Rd
Monument CO 80132

With the help of another missionary couple, Brian and Sarah Bennetch we have started a prayer dinner for Christian believers here in Rome.  We meet every Friday night and share fellowship, food, prayer, singing and the scripture.  Our hope is that this small group will spawn into other small groups, including non-believers who can be introduced to the gospel.  In our meeting there have been three Italians, one Finn, two New Zealanders, a Moldavian, a gal from Poland and an Albanian. We pray that these young people will become disciples to bring others to the gospel. In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet , predicts the destruction of Israel because of its pride that they could live without the one God, in Isaiah 11:1 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” Isaiah predicts that from a humble chopped down tree will come a branch, a “shoot”, that will bring God back to the hearts of His people.  Of course this shoot that Isaiah predicted was Jesus the Messiah.  That is the vision that God has given us here in Rome, a vision of a shoot growing from the stump.  The stump is the remnant of a Christian era here in Rome and the “shoot” is the resurgence of Jesus through the believers that still exist in this long forgotten heritage of Jesus Christ.  Mary and I are seeing believers, some Italian, many from other countries, just as was the case with the Jews who returned to Israel from other countries.  We see God moving these believers to be the “shoot” the branch that grows and “will bear fruit”.  Our hope and prayer is that these handfuls of believers scattered around Rome and other parts of Italy will come together to realize the power that God can have through them to reach all of Italy and probably some of the foreigners returning to their home lands to share the gospel in other parts of Europe.

In a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina at 10:54pm on November 3, 2009, just a few days ago, God created another miracle, a baby boy was born to Kaitlyn and David Simmers.  His name is Liam Simmers.  Liam is spending the first few days of his life in neonatal intensive care because he has some fluid in his lungs and he was given antibiotics to prevent a pneumonia infection.  We hope Liam can be released from NIC soon.  His mom, our daughter Kaitlyn is doing fine after his birth but she and David would love to have their baby home.  We ask for your prayers for his recovery.  We’ve been able to enjoy some time with them thanks to modern technology, Skype, to communicate with them and see their faces.  We still haven’t had an opportunity to visit with Liam over Skype yet, but we hope that will happen soon.  We thank many of you who have congratulated us and wished God’s blessings on our family.  We love you all.

Because of the birth of our new grandson, Liam, we will be heading to the States for a brief visit to spend some time with Liam and his mom and dad, Kaitlyn and David.  We leave Rome, Italy and arrive in Charlotte NC on some time in November, our dates aren’t set yet.  We will be staying with our daughter and son-in-law at their home in Charlotte NC. I (Joe) will be taking a 4 day trip to New York to visit my 93 year old mom (who is doing very well) and also visit the New York City office of records so that I can find the remaining records I need to apply for dual citizenship here in Italy.  Having citizenship in Italy will make our stay here much easier and open many more doors to us. Then we will head down to Niceville, FL our “home town” on Friday, Dec. 11^th and we’ll be staying in Niceville until Tues, Dec. 15^th.  We’ll probably return to Charlotte for a few days and then leave for Rome shortly after. We would love to visit with as many friends as possible during that time.

Our Friday night prayer group was a wonderful night of fellowship, prayer and singing and the hour was late, so I offered to drive home four gals who had long bus rides home.  It turned out to be a crazy trip to say the least. We set out for the first girl’s home and I misunderstood where she lived so I started out in the wrong direction. After getting the GPS programmed it took us back to where I needed to go. We had only lost about 10 minutes. We headed to the next stop, only to find the main road closed, so we resorted to a detour that took us in the right direction, but one of my passengers insisted she knew a better route. 20 minutes later we were right back where we started from and in the process I had been rear ended at an intersection (fortunately there was no damage done) and stopped for going the wrong way on a one way street by the Carabinieri (the national police force). I had caught the mistake and the Carabinieri let me go without a ticket. At 1:30am I finally got everyone safely home including myself thanks to our Lord and our car, a 2000 Fiat Marea station wagon, the pre-dented model which was funded by FUMC Niceville’s Bargain Box. In all it was a wonderful night.

 I have to cook more here as there isn’t much inexpensive or  fast food. Also we use our dinner table as a place to build relationships and share Jesus.  You can see this by the number of pictures where we’re eating!  So I have been using old recipes and creating new ones because the ingredients are slightly different here. Anna, the newest member of the Italian team, joined me in the kitchen for some cooking fun.  I thought I’ld share my newest favorite recipe.     So here are the ingredients I used:

•  4 chicken breasts,
• 1 pint of mascarpone cheese,
• 1/2 cup pecorino cheese, a Roman favorite,( parmesan or romano will work)
• 1 bag spinach ( about 3 cups loosely packed),
• 1 lemon,  
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 
• 1 heaping tablespoon of mixed Italian seasoning without salt, ( The cheese has plenty!)  or blend 1 tablespoon dry basil, 1 teaspoon oregano and powdered garlic.  (Yes, I use fresh herbs but not everyone has this on their terrazzo so I’ve adjusted the ingredients)
• little olive oil,
• 12 grape tomatoes. 

First cut the chicken breasts in half to make thin slices, dust them with the dried herbs and pepper.  Then pound them with a meat hammer so they cook evenly and don’t dry out.  Brown the chicken in a pan with a little olive oil.  Layer 2 cups of spinach in the bottom of the pan. Squeeze half the lemon over the spinach.  Dust with garlic powder.  Blend the cheeses and the rest of the spinach in a food processor. Spread it on the cooked chicken and lay this side on the spinach.  You should have enough  to put a thin coat on the top of the chicken as well.  Cut the tomatoes in half, and roll in a little olive oil and salt.  Place them on top of the dish.  It is the perfect red and green for Christmas!  Then bake at 325degrees for about 25 minutes or until its done.  I covered mine for the first half of cooking and then finished it uncovered.  You can serve with rice of pasta to soak up the delicious flavors.  I like intense flavors so I squeeze some of the remaining fresh lemon on mine before eating but this is definitely an individual thing.   This feeds 6 – 8 people depending on the people and the size of the chicken. 

   We’re doing well here in Rome. It’s an uphill climb when you move to a new city, whether it’s in the US or overseas. After all we were so comfortable with friends, jobs and places in Niceville and now we’re starting all over again.  But, we see the friendships developing and we’re learning our way around.

   We’ve gotten settled in really well and we’ve been making lots of friends. Language study is going well, but fluency is a long way off. Mary and I have started working one on one with language coaches.

   Through the summer we have wished we had air conditioning. The days gott to 85-95 and the nights cooled down to about 75.We kept fans running non-stop and they kept us alivel. We really adapted to the heat. Mary and I walked about a mile to the train station for school then climbed the stairs of the subway and walked from the subway to school every day in this heat and we did well. It’s amazing what you can adapt to.

    I miss my dishwasher the most, then comes the clothes dryer. Though hanging clothes really isn’t that much of a bother.  Really, we’re enjoying the simplicity of it all.

   A typical day in our life is really based around our language study at the moment. Mary and I have been enrolled in a language school. School has been great mission field for us. As we make friends and share with them that we are missionaries they get curious and ask lots of questions. That leads to all sorts of opportunities.

    We take the metro (subway) to school each day. We walk down about 1km to the metro station from our house and then ride the train to the main station “Termini” switch trains to our final destination “Policlinico”. We go to the “Torre di Babele” school. It’s a well run school with great teachers. For the most part we are learning grammar, we work on listening and speaking but I find the speaking part is slow because there is such a concentration on grammar.

    After school we come home and study, do homework, contact friends and supporters on line. We have also made quite a few Italian friends and we are committed to those relationships, particularly because these friends are seeking  spiritually. So, we’ve had quite a bit of opportunity to witness and help them grow. Our friends range from the young gal who lives next door who Mary meets with in the mornings for private language lessons to some older folks who are our land lords and their family and friends to a young couple who were friends of the couple we bought our car from before we got here. This couple helped us pick up our car and they instantly became great friends. On weekends we may go to watch their son and daughter play baseball (yes, they have baseball here in Italy).

    We would also take the afternoons to see some of Rome. One afternoon we went to see Castel di San Angelo, a few days ago I got off the train a few stops early and did my homework in the park of Villa Borghese.

    One night we went to a play that our next door neighbor was in. It was a comedy about 5 women on vacation together. We get invited to homes for dinner quite regularly and tonight we are having some of the students in Mary’s language class over for dinner. Praise the Lord Mary is a great cook and loves to entertain. That has been our single most effective way of building relationships here.

    Some of the friends we have had over for dinner include three college students that we met at an Evangelical conference about three months ago. They are two Italian girls and a girl from Finland, all believers. They have been an amazing blessing to us. They have been over for dinner and we’ve maintained a friendship via the internet until they return for classes in the fall.

    We also have made friends of some of the local shop keepers. Particularly, our friends Walter and Gilda from the local ice cream shop. We have had them over for dinner. They have been very friendly to us and Walter loves to talk about the USA. So, we’re trying to make the most of every minute of every day with the sole purpose of introducing people to the gospel.

    Oh, we also have other missionaries here in Rome who have a house church and bible studies going. We meet with them at least once a week to plan and pray. We are making plans for a year from now to have a group from Niceville, FL come to work with youth here in Rome. We are also planning a service type mission trip to Macedonia for Italian youth. We plan on promoting it through the local private schools.